You got hurt at work. The comp insurer paid your treatment and part of your wages. Then it turned out somebody outside your company caused the accident. A delivery driver ran the light. A subcontractor left the trench open. So you have a second claim against that person, and a workers comp lien now sits on whatever that second claim brings in. Nevada writes the rule down plainly in NRS 616C.215, and understanding it early keeps a settlement from evaporating at the end.
This comes up constantly in Las Vegas. Hotel and casino work, construction on the Strip, warehouse work in North Las Vegas and delivery routes across the valley all put employees in the path of outside companies. The comp system pays first. The third party pays second. Then the two have to settle up.
Two Claims Running Side by Side
Start with the shape of it. A Nevada work injury normally produces one claim inside the comp system and, sometimes, one civil claim outside it. The comp claim pays medical care and wage benefits without any argument about fault. The civil claim asks a jury to decide fault, and it reaches damages the comp system never touches.
Those extra damages matter. Pain and suffering sit outside comp entirely. So does the full value of lost earning capacity. So does a spouse’s own claim. Our page on pursuing a comp case and an injury case at the same time walks through how the two files run in parallel.
Why Your Own Employer Is Usually Off Limits
Most people ask about suing the employer first. NRS 616A.020 answers that. The rights and remedies in the Nevada industrial insurance chapters are exclusive of all other rights and remedies at common law for an injury arising out of and in the course of employment. That exclusivity also extends to a co worker in the same employ.
So the target has to be someone else. A negligent driver from another company. A property owner. A general contractor when you worked for a sub. An equipment manufacturer. Third party is the whole game here, and identifying the right one early shapes everything that follows.
What NRS 616C.215 Actually Says
The insurer gets a lien on the total recovery
Subsection 2 covers the ordinary case. When an injury is compensable under the comp chapters, and someone other than the employer or a co worker is legally liable, you may take proceedings against that person. Your comp entitlement then drops by the amount of damages you recover, including future compensation. The insurer also gets a right of action against that party and steps into your shoes.
Subsection 5 is the sentence that decides most settlements. Where the insurer is subrogated, it holds a lien upon the total proceeds of any recovery from a person other than the employer. That applies whether the money arrives by judgment, by settlement or otherwise. The statute then says plainly that an injured employee is not entitled to double recovery for the same injury.
Read the word total carefully. The lien attaches to the whole recovery, not to a medical bills column inside it. Subsection 6 says the lien covers the total compensation expenditure the insurer incurred for you and your dependents.
The notice you owe before you file
Subsection 7 sets a duty that people miss. You, your dependents or your representative must notify the insurer in writing before starting a proceeding or action under the section. Written notice, before the case begins. That single step avoids a fight later about whether the insurer knew.
The fifteen day clock after the money lands
Subsection 8 puts a hard deadline on the back end. Within fifteen days after actually receiving the proceeds of a judgment or settlement, you and the third party insurer must notify the comp insurer of the recovery. You must also pay the amount due and hand over an itemised statement showing how the total recovery got distributed.
There is teeth behind it. The same subsection makes your attorney or representative and the third party insurer jointly and severally liable for the amount owed, where they knew about the lien. That is why a settlement check sits in trust until the lien gets resolved. Nobody involved wants personal exposure for somebody else’s repayment.
The Comp Insurer Can Bring Its Own Case
Subrogation runs both directions. Under subsection 2, the insurer holds its own right of action against the liable party. It does not need your permission to use it. Subsection 4 then adds a balancing rule. Evidence of what the insurer paid or became obligated to pay comes in as admissible proof, and if the insurer recovers more than those amounts, the excess goes to you.
Subsection 9 protects you from one specific tactic. An insurer may not sell its lien to a third party insurer, unless you or your representative refuse to give the insurer information about the action against the third party. Cooperation therefore has practical value beyond good manners.
Uninsured Motorist Coverage and Whose Policy Paid
This part rewards close reading, especially for drivers. Subsection 3 deals with an injury caused by an uninsured or underinsured motorist. If you recover under your employer’s uninsured or underinsured vehicle policy, your comp benefits drop by the proceeds, and the insurer is subrogated to that recovery.
Then comes the line that matters most. The statute says the insurer and the Administrator are not subrogated to your rights under a policy of uninsured or underinsured vehicle coverage that you purchased yourself. Your own policy, bought with your own money, stands outside the comp lien in that situation.
Subsection 3 also voids policy language that tries to work around this. Any provision limiting your right to recover because you received comp benefits is void. So is any provision limiting the subrogation rights the statute grants, or excluding coverage that benefits the insurer indirectly.
What the Jury Hears About Your Benefits
Subsection 10 handles the courtroom problem. Jurors who learn that comp already paid your bills may quietly reduce the award. Nevada solves that with a required instruction. The jury receives proof of all payments made by the insurer, and the court instructs that comp payments rest on the fact of a compensable industrial accident rather than on blame or fault.
The instruction goes further. If the jury decides you should recover, it must award damages without deducting the comp benefits paid to you or on your behalf. The instruction tells jurors directly that the law provides a means for repayment out of the award. So the lien does not shrink your verdict at the front end.
Where These Third Party Claims Come From in the Valley
The pattern repeats across Clark County. A hotel engineer gets struck by a vendor’s box truck on a loading dock. A framer falls when another trade removes a guardrail. A route driver gets rear ended on the 215 Beltway while making deliveries. A warehouse worker loses a hand to a machine sold without a guard.
Each of those files needs work the comp claim never does. Fault has to be proved. The right corporate defendant has to be named. Scene evidence, contracts and safety records all matter. Severe cases also need a life care plan and a vocational analysis, and our catastrophic injury page sets out what that proof looks like.
Comparative fault sits over all of it. NRS 41.141 lets you recover as long as your negligence was not greater than the negligence of the parties you sued. Recovery drops by your percentage, and the jury returns a special verdict setting each share.
Money From the Employer Counts Too
Subsection 1 closes an obvious gap. Suppose the employer hands over money directly for the injury. Your comp entitlement drops by that amount, and the insurer holds a lien on the total the employer paid. The statute says this applies whether the payment gets labelled a gift, a settlement or anything else. It also states clearly that subsection 1 grants no right to sue the employer in tort.
The Two Year Clock on the Civil Case
Comp deadlines and civil deadlines run separately, and people conflate them constantly. Reporting a work injury to the employer happens within days. Filing the comp claim with the insurer happens within months. The civil case against the outside party follows a different rule entirely.
NRS 11.190(4)(e) allows two years to bring an action for injuries to a person caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another. So an open comp claim buys you nothing on the civil side. Treatment can still be running, the insurer can still be paying, and the two year window can still close. Identify the third party early, because the investigation takes time.
How the Lien Gets Sorted in Practice
The statute sets the right to repayment. It does not set a formula for who bears the cost of producing the money. So apportionment of fees and costs gets negotiated, and it gets negotiated before you sign the release, not after. Subsection 11 shows the legislature thought about litigation expenses at least once, because the credit to an employer’s premium account comes net of the carrier’s share of the expenses of obtaining the recovery.
Practical steps help more than argument. Get a written, itemised lien ledger from the insurer and read every line. Check for charges unrelated to this injury. Check for treatment the insurer denied and never actually paid. Confirm whether future compensation remains open, since subsection 2 reaches future benefits too. A comp lien is not the same animal as a health plan lien, and our page on health insurance subrogation in Nevada injury settlements explains the other one.
The Division of Industrial Relations administers this system. Its Workers Compensation Section publishes the forms, the claim procedures and the appeal routes for Nevada claims.
Do Not Sign a Release Until the Ledger Is Clean
The Bourassa Law Group handles work injury cases where a third party caused the harm. We deal with the comp insurer and the liable party at the same time, so the repayment question gets answered before anyone signs. Reach us through our contact page and bring the claim number if you have it.
This article explains Nevada law in general terms and is not legal advice. It creates no attorney client relationship. A workers comp lien is manageable when you see it coming, and unpleasant when it arrives the week the check does.
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